Tuesday, 29 January 2013

I cannot give this book whole hearted endorsement because of the way it was foot noted. I am unable to match citations to the text and Lutzer deals with areas of Nazi history I am unfamiliar with (the occult).

On the other hand, Erwin Lutzer is a prolific writer, has written many books, is the Pastor of many years of Chicago's Moody Memorial Church and has a sterling reputation. So there is no reason to suspect he is wrong about any of his facts.

I am well read enough to know he is not wrong about his central thesis which is how Hitler and the Nazi's co-opted the German churches to further the Nazi agenda. Weakened by theological and societal liberalism far too many churches fell in lock step with Hitler even as they watched their more conservative fellows thrown into concentration camps and murdered.

The churches in Texas opposed Lyndon Johnson in his early political career. He repaid them as a senator by getting legislation passed that would strip them of their 501C (tax exampt) status if they engaged in politics or endorsed candidates. Political activism and the endorsing of candidates was a church activity since the founding of the Republic. Johnson stripped the churches of rights that other 501C organizations still enjoy.

Yet, when Obama wanted support for Obamacare Nancy Pelosi called on the churches to promote it from their pulpits. The Obama administration has also called on churches for support for immigration reform.

It would seem that some thing are only against the law if they oppose this administration.

Lutzer does not deal with modern day America. He is concerned only with the church in Nazi Germany. It is an extraordinarily frightening peek into fascism's take over of religious institutions, bending them to the political will of a party.

It is impossible, except for those who are completely vapid, to read this book without seeing the parallels in America today. They are glaring and just as frightening in America now as Germany then.

The drums of fascism are beating again and they give rhythm to a march that is no less scary because it is draped in garments of the new tolerance, a new tolerance which merely attempts to disguise an old hatred. Fascism has always been a movement of the left and they have always tried to shift the blame.

It was bad enough for the White House to disinvite a pastor from praying at President Obama’s inauguration because he expressed orthodox Christian views in a sermon delivered almost 20 years ago. But to disinvite him in order to reflect “this administration’s vision of inclusion and acceptance for all Americans” is enough to make George Orwell proud. Talk about a classic example of doublespeak!

To be sure, Orwell never used the term “doublespeak,” but in his classic volume “1984,” he referred to “doublethink” and “newspeak.” Others have combined these terms into “doublespeak,” meaning to say one thing and mean the opposite. As noted on a contemporary Orwell website, “In 1984, when BIG BROTHER and the Party say PEACE they mean WAR, when they say LOVE they mean HATE, and when they say FREEDOM they mean SLAVERY.”

Today, in 2013, when this administration says “inclusion and acceptance of all Americans” it means “exclusion and rejection of multiplied tens of millions of Americans.” And when this administration uses the “diversity,” word, it means “narrow conformity,” in strict accordance with the Gay Activist Doublespeak Lexicon, as reflected in the comments of Addie Whisenant, spokeswoman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

Whisenant explained that President Obama had asked Pastor Louie Giglio to pray at the inaugural ceremonies before learning that this evangelical pastor had preached an evangelical sermon in the mid-1990’s entitled, “In Search of a Standard – Christian Response to Homosexuality.” Using the “diversity” word, she noted that the inaugural committee was “not aware of Pastor Giglio’s past comments at the time of his selection and they don’t reflect our desire to celebrate the strength and diversity of our country at this Inaugural.”

So there you have it: A popular evangelical pastor (well known, I might add, for his work against sex trafficking) was excluded from participating at the inauguration of President Obama in order to “celebrate the . . . diversity” of America and to reflect the “administration’s vision of inclusion and acceptance for all Americans” (both quotes from Whisenant).

As I noted on October 13, 2012, “In the upside down, gay activist lexicon, tolerance means intolerance, inclusivity means exclusivity, and diversity means my way or the highway.”

The whole inaugural event becomes even more Orwellian when you realize that: 1) President Obama will be using two Bibles when he is sworn in (the Lincoln Bible and the Martin Luther King Bible), yet he will be doing so while explicitly disavowing the contents of those Bibles on a number of critically important points (the divine mandate to protect innocent life and the divine disapproval of homosexual practice being two of the most glaring).

2) In 2009, at the ceremonies held one day before President Obama’s first inauguration, Bishop Eugene Robinson was asked to bring the opening invocation, yet Robinson has been one of the most divisive figures in American (and even world) religion since making history as the first openly gay bishop ordained by the Episcopal Church. So, a respected Protestant pastor like Louie Giglio is considered divisive whereas an openly homosexual bishop who has caused a fissure in the Episcopalian Church of America and the Anglican Church worldwide is considered an ideal choice. (Chad Griffin, president of the gay activist Human Rights Campaign, agreed that it would be right to exclude Giglio from this year’s event, since “Participants in the Inaugural festivities should unite rather than divide,” presumably just as Robinson “united” Americans in 2009.)

3) Although Pastor Giglio was branded as “vehemently anti-gay” by Think Progress, preaching one major sermon on the subject of homosexuality over a 20 year period hardly qualifies as being “vehemently anti-gay.” And when Giglio stated almost 20 years ago that acting on homosexual desires is a choice, that homosexual practice is “a sin,” that “homosexuality is less than God’s best for his creation,” and that the “only way out of a homosexual lifestyle … is through the healing power of Jesus,” he was hardly expressing viewpoints that were “vehemently anti-gay.”

4) Just four years ago, despite protests from gay activists and their allies, Pastor Rick Warren offered the benediction at Obama’s inauguration, even though he had publicly opposed same-sex “marriage” in California in 2008. Now, based on a mild sermon preached almost 20 years ago, Pastor Giglio has been excluded from offering the benediction. How dramatically things have changed in just four years.

In a very important article, Rev. Al Mohler was quick to label this “The Giglio Imbroglio — The Public Inauguration of a New Moral McCarthyism,” noting that, “The Presidential Inaugural Committee and the White House have now declared historic, biblical Christianity to be out of bounds, casting it off the inaugural program as an embarrassment” – along with the orthodox expressions of Judaism and Islam, among other world faiths.

Yes, the administration has decided to scorn the views of perhaps 150 million Americans (if not many more) in order to celebrate our country’s “diversity” and to reflect “this administration’s vision of inclusion and acceptance for all Americans.”

Somewhere, Big Brother is smiling, and in America, it’s 1984 in 2013. In fact, it’s been 1984 for a quite a few years already. The problem is that most Americans don’t have a clue. Doublespeak has been doing a masterful job.

Dr. Michael Brown is the author of The Real Kosher Jesus and the host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show The Line of Fire on the Salem Radio Network.